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cool! I love military vehicles especially tracked ones. when I was a kid, surplus weasels were availiable and were popular for converting into full track swamp buggies down here. they could go thru the nastiest mud the Everglades had to offer. now tracked buggies are only permitted in a few areas so you don't see too many any more.

First made in the late '30's, and until 1960, these little tracked vehicles were made originally in UK, and later in Australia, Canada, Fance and China, and were eqipped with everything from the original BREN .303 light machine gun to 2 & 3 pounder anti-tank guns, and mortars.

Captured BCs were used by Axis forces, and were the first vehicles eqipped with anti tank rockets.

The BC had a tow hitch fitted almost from the start.

Scary ride, as the steering wheel turned the front road wheels up to a certain, indeterminate point, and then the track power. when the vehicle would lurch to left or right...

Thin armour; a .303/7.62 would penetrate the early models...

113,000 were produced, possibly making it the "was the most produced armoured fighting vehicle in history"

Its what they call a Medium tractor, some were ordered By the Dutch Military from Marmon-Herrington. This one, a "track laying"
tractor TBS45, is shown here (with trailer) on a
picture from a 1944 Marmon-Herrington brochure.
The medium tractors were mostly meant for
hauling guns and for towing bridging equipment.
Total orders to Marmon-Herrington numbered 330
tractors.

In the mid 1930s Marmon-Herrington of Indianapolis
started designing and building tanks on their own
account. Their tank designs were initially based on
their various series of tracked tractors.
One of Marmon-Herrington's first commercial export
successes was this CTVL turretless tankette, sold to
Mexico

Some links of how the company progressed from Marmon Auto's to Marmon-Harrington, to the Marmon Group
The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American-based manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II, and until the late 1950s or early 1960s was a manufacturer of trucks and trolley buses. Marmon-Herrington had a partnership with Ford Motor Company, producing trucks and other commercial vehicles, such as buses. The company may be best known for its all-wheel-drive conversions to other truck maker's units, especially to Ford ones.Based originally in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a plant in Windsor, Ontario, Marmon-Herrington is now based in Louisville, Kentucky.

For Elie P. Aghnides, the hemispherical wheels of his Rhino prototype built by Marmon-Herrington in 1954 was the ideal propulsion. The vehicle could not theoretically roll over.

I also pictured a couple of their tanks like the M22 Locust and some Alaskan Campain MTLS's in a high pass.
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In U.S. service the tanks were designated
T14 and T15, depending on the position of
the turret.
As bigger, better and heavier armour
began to poor into the U.S. forces, crews
despised the Marmon-Herrington light
tanks.
Nevertheless, in Dutch service it was
known as a reliable machine especially
because of its Hercules engine.
Note the two bow mounted .30 machine
guns. Crew of the CTLS tanks counted just
two. For this reason they were often called
the Dutch two-man tanks.

This company made full tracked and half tracked primmovers from 1933 to 1948.

Linn​

Manufactured commercially by the Linn Mfg. Co. of Morris, N.Y., especially for extremely heavy-duty off-highway work, the Army thought they might make good cross-country vehicles. Seen here carrying a TlE6 Light Tank (weight: 19,900 pounds), it was being evaluated in Aberdeen in June 1933.

Linn T3 Half Track​

The Linn half-track appeared in limited numbers in the Army inventory in two models during the mid-1930s. This 1933 version, designated T3, had the same basic specifications as the earlier model, but featured a cab complete with weather protection, a winch, and a steel cargo body with top bows and tarpaulin. The American La France V-12 was still fitted, and it was expected to pull field artillery guns weighing up to 15 tons. The T3 weighed 17 tons itself with fully loaded. The speed of this 22-foot long vehicle was a respectable 20 miles per hour on firm roads, but only 2 miles per hour off the road. The average fuel consumption was a 1.7 miles per gallon. The pneumatic tires were 9.75x2O. The wheelbase was 192 inches measured at the center of the track mechanism. The T3 required almost 66 feet to turn around under good conditions, as it did not have the capability of braking the inside track to assist in turning.

Linn T6 Half Track​

Linn's T6 is shown here prior to delivery to Aberdeen Proving Ground in July, 1934. It was just as ponderous and massive as its predecessors had been. The extra-wide frame that encompassed the entire track assembly can be seen in this view. Although it was a very heavy and noisy vehicle, it was also extremely rugged and capable of carrying heavy loads for sustained periods. The T6 had a road speed of 15 miles per hour (off-road was 10 miles per hour), and a five-speed transmission carried the 174 horsepower of the big 935 cubic inch Hercules model HXE engine back to the 14 inch wide rear tracks. Weighing 35,000 pounds loaded, it needed 35 feet to turn its 20.5 foot length and 156 inch wheelbase. Only one T6 was built.

---Linn C5 1939​

An odd vehicle that combined both a half track and wheels. The Army evaluated it as a potential to haul the 155mm howitzer.
​

Linn B29 Carrier​

These vehicles were to be used in pairs to lift disabled B29 Superfortress planes and carry them to a repair center. A total of 40 (20 pair) were ordered but only 2 were built before the end of WW2 which resulted in a cancellation of the remaining units.​

The use of observation balloons for directing artillery fire was a worldwide practice during the Great War and for many years thereafter. It required that the balloon be taken on the ground to a position near enough to the enemy to make a visual observation, and the balloon then inflated. Once airborne, the balloon, with the observer's gondola hanging underneath, was quickly allowed to rise while tethered to a steel cable. The observer stood in the gondola with a pair of binoculars and as soon as he had made note of the enemy positions, he used wire communications to call the information back down to the artillery units. Rapid ascent and descent were obviously critical, and could help add to the fife span of the observer. This view shows the Holt-adapted FWD with all of the shrouding in place. The McKeen Motor Car Co. of Omaha, Neb., built this unit around 1919. Note that a second FWD radiator was mounted at the rear to provide cooling for the big six-cylinder engine that powered the balloon winch assembly. The McKeen Company usually built railroad cars.

British Mystery truck #1
The Morris Commercial C8 FAT (Field Artillery Tractor) commonly known as a Quad was an artillery tractor of the British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. It was used to tow field artillery pieces, such as the 25 pounder gun-howitzer, and anti-tank guns, such as the 17 pounder.
Although its sloped sides suggest otherwise, the Quad was not armoured.
TypeArtillery tractor
Place of origin United Kingdom
Production history
Manufacturer Morris and others
Number built 10,000units
Specifications Weight3.3 long tons (3,400 kg)
Length14 ft 8 3⁄4 in (4.489 m)
Width7 ft 3 in (2.21 m)
Height7 ft 5 in (2.26 m)
Crew1 + 5 passengers
Engine Morris EH, 4-cylinder 3.5 litre gas engine
70 bhp (52.2kW)
SuspensionWheel, 4 x 4Operational
range160 miles (257 km)
Speed50 miles per hour (80 km/h)

The Bedford QLD was the GS (general service) cargo truck version of the QL series of truck, manufactured by Bedford Vehicles, for use by the British Armed Forces
The Bedford QL was in production from 1941 to 1945. About 52,250 were produced in total. The QLD was the most numerous version in the series.

Machine Gun Packing John Deere’s were the idea of a great grandson of John Deere, C.D. Wiman, in 1940. He felt that these small armored tractors cold be produced in mass quickly to provide cover fire for troops in the field.
The Armored A1 had the narrow tricycle front wheels of it's civilian conterpart. Anyone who has driven a tractor with this front wheel arangement (like our Farmall H) knows they can be unstable on uneven ground. They also tend to bog down in sand and mud. If this is true with the civilian tractors imagine the 9,500 Lb. Armored A. These had a top speed of 13 MPH on a hard surface road.

In addition to armor plate the Armored A had two machine gun turrets, one on each side of the vehicle. These were cramped boxes intended to house one gunner and a .30 caliber M1919 machine gun. Unfortunly John Deere's engineers had no experience with the M1919 and the turret didn't have room to mount it's ammo box. This lead to feed problems.

The turrets were manually rotated and had very poor visiblity. At first at least the guns had no travel stops, which allowed to gunners to shoot their own vehicle on occasion. Both the turrets and the drivers compartment were ice boxes in the winter and ovens in the summer, but that was in not uncommon in armored vehicles.

After the first test in January of 1941 the Army asked for a second test vehicle, the Armored A2. The most noticable were wide front wheels. Even with these improvements the Armored A's were slow moving, high profile beast any enemy gunner would have considered a birthday present. The Army also requested a third prototype without the machine gun turrets to act as a front line prime mover, but it too was rejected.

The orginal Armored A's were scraped years ago and no effort was made to preserve documentation. What remained were a handful of old photographs.